Joseph Edwards Dickson of Tyrone and Dublin

Joseph Edwards Dickson and Tennie Dickson

Joseph Dickson and Emily Eveline/Eveleen Jones were our maternal great-grandparents. Emily Eveleen was the daughter of Charles Jones and Isabella Pennefather of 56 Blessington Street.

Emily Eveleen, known as Tennie, married Joseph Edwards Dickson, a coal merchant of 15 Northumberland Road, on 18th August 1897 in the Jones' parish church of St.Marys. Their witnesses were Tennie's older brother, Robert Oscar Jones who worked in the family business Charles Jones & Sons, and William James Hardy who was a friend of Joseph Dickson from Tyrone.  There was a 13 year age difference between the bride and groom - on the 1901 Census you can see that Joseph was 36 and Tennie was only 23.

I found two deeds relating to Joseph Edwards Dickson.  The first (1894-2-293)  was between John Arthur Maconchy and Alexander Knox McEntire of the Four Courts, Final Assigners of the Court of Bankruptcy, and Joseph Edwards Dickson of Grand Canal Wharf and Great Brunswick St, trustees for the creditors in the matter of a petition for arrangement by John Little, formerly of the Hibernian Glass Bottle Works, Ringsend and John Gardinner Nutling of Gortmore, Dundrum.
The second deed (1897-77-143) referred to Joseph's own bankruptcy that year. It was dated 7th December 1897.  'In the matter of Joseph E. Dickson of 110 Great Brunswick Street, coal merchant, trading as J.E.Dickson & Co. - a bankrupt. His effects vested in the Court.'
The Irish Times of November 6th 1897 noted that the Court of Justice was to have a meeting, on 19th November, to deal with the J.E. Dickson bankruptcy.
Despite the bankruptcy of 1897, the business seems to have survived for another few years.

In early April 1903, one of the floodgates at the Grand Canal Basin, Ringsend Docks, broke free and was carried away, emptying, at tremendous speed, 30 acres of water into the Liffey.  At 11.30pm, the steamship 'Gertrude' from Liverpool, laden with coal consigned to J.E. Dickson, was carried away by the torrents of water which carried both the shattered gate and the ship towards the sea.  For the first time in decades, the muddy bed of the Canal Basin could be seen exposed from the Grand Canal Bridge;  there were, thankfully, no injuries.

The Children of Joseph Edwards Dickson and Tennie Jones were as follows:

1) Cecil Robert Dickson was born at 3 Nelson Street, near Dorset Street, on 12th May 1899 and died  in 1965.  Cecil Robert Dickson later married Eva Maguire ( 15th December 1902 - 26th February 1995) on 31st August 1927.  At the time the Dickson family were living in Granite House, 124 Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge, and the wedding was witnessed by Cecil's cousin, Percival Mottershed, and by his younger sister - our grandmother - Vera Antoinette Dickson.

Eva Constance Maguire had been born on 15th December 1902 to Frederick William Maguire and Fannie Earls of  Harolds Cross; Frederick William Maguire was the son of a civil servant of Garville Avenue, Rathgar, Henry Maguire, and of Emily Jones.  This Emily Jones was the daughter of a William Jones, but I doubt they were related in any way to the family of Tennie Jones, Cecil Dickson's mother.

Eva Maguire's mother was Fannie Teresa Earls, the daughter of a short-lived Dublin tailor, Henry Cadden Earls (1839 - 1875), and of Harriet Sherlock.  Henry Cadden Earls, the son of tailor John Earls, married Harriet Sherlock, daughter of Robert Sherlock, on 1st April 1861.

   Eva Maguire, daughter of Frederick William Maguire and of Fannie Earls,  and Cecil Dickson had two sons;
         a) Ivan Dickson, born 14th Dec. 1929, married Sallie Hudson, born 3rd May 1928.
         b) Freddie Dickson, born 4th Aug. 1940, married Flo Schmutz, born 28th April 1930.

2) Violet Alexandra Dickson - she was born to Joseph Edward (sic) Dickson and Emily Eveleen Dickson on 29th April 1900;  the family were living at 3 Nelson Street in Dublin city, just around the corner from Blessington Street where Emily Eveleen/Tennie's family were living at the time.

 Violet died of polio tragically young in Montebello, Howth, on 7th January 1917, aged only 16.

Violet Alexander Dickson

3) Emily Eveline Dickson, who we knew as Auntie Ebbie, was born on 14th September 1901, and died 21st November 1977.  At the time of Ebbies's birth, Joseph and Tennie were living at 2 Como Terrace in Clontarf.  Present at the birth was Adelina Maude Jones (née Pelissier) who had married Tennie's brother, Robert Oscar Jones, in 1897 in St.Mary's. Auntie Ebbie never married and spoilt us terribly.

Auntie Ebbie Dickson

4) Adelaide Victoria Dickson, aka Eda, was born 10th November 1902 in Ashbourne, Howth,  and was named after her aunt, Adelaide Victoria Jones Dunbar. She died 9th February 1982.

In December 1911, the governors of the Masonic Girls' School in Ballsbridge met to elect 9 new pupils.  Adelaide V. Dickson, daughter of the late Brother Joseph E.Dickson, coal merchant, of Lodge 126, Dublin, received 3,629 votes, coming second in the vote. It was noted that her father had been a life governor of the school.

She was married to Joseph McClean Wallace, aka Dinky Wallace, (he died 27th Jan. 1959).  They married in South Dublin in 1925 and had three children:
       a)  Cynthia Wallace, born 18th Dec.1925, died 1st October 1988. She married, in Switzerland, Kurt Steinmann.
       b)  Ronald Gordon Wallace, born 4th August 1927, died 10th March 1986. He married, in Dublin, Sylvia Joan Cullen.
       c) Stephanie Joan Wallace, born 4th September 1929. She married, in Bristol, Peter Edward Galton, born 15th July 1930.

Eda's husband, Dinky or Joseph Wallace, had been born in Tobermore, Co. Derry, on 12th May 1896, to the farmer Robert John Wallace and Margaret McLean.

Eda Dickson

5) A daughter, Josephine, was born in 19 Leahy's Terrace in Sandymount on 25th November 1903 but died three days later.  She was buried in Mount Jerome alongside her parents and her older sister Violet.

6)  Vera Antoinette Dickson, our maternal grandmother,was born in Belmont, Howth, on 6th November 1905 - seven months after the death of her father, Joseph Dickson;  she died on 24th August 1982.

Our grandmother, Vera Dickson, with her uncle, Robert Oscar Jones - his brother, Charles Jones, sent the postcard.

As can be seen from the address,  following Joseph Dickson's death, the family moved out to Howth

Vera Dickson married Richard Williams (30th May 1889 - 9th March 1977) on 28th September 1927 in the Plymouth Brethrens' meeting place of Merrion Hall in Dublin.  Richard Williams, a bank official and son of the retired shipping agent, Willis Creighton Williams, was living at 38 Grosvenor Square in Rathmines, while Vera Antoinette Dickson, daughter of the late coal merchant, Joseph Edwards Dickson, was living at home in Carisbrooke House, Pembroke Road. The wedding was witnessed by Vera'a sister, Eveleen Emily Dickson, and by Reginald Vincent Squire, a fellow-parishioner from Merrion Hall.

The children of our maternal grandparents, Richard Williams and Vera Antoinette Dickson were:
  a)  Maurice Willis Creighton Williams, born Dublin 14th September 1928. Maurice, an engineer, married Marguerite (Daisy) Henderson in 1952 and the couple moved permanently to Edinburgh, Scotland.  Daisy Williams died in Edinburgh on 25th October 2012.
b)  Raymond Dickson Williams, born in Dublin on 28th March 1930.  He married in 1964 Ruth Musgrave Harris - both were doctors and spent their entire working lives running a teaching hospital in Zaire, before retiring to England.
c)  Trevor Willis Williams, born in Dublin on 19th March 1932.  A doctor, he emigrated in 1957 to Canada where he married Elizabeth Rose Drover (Betty) in 1960.  Trevor settled first in St. John's, Newfoundland, where he worked with the Department of Public Health, before practising as a pediatrician in Winnipeg, then moving into research, working in the Cadham Provincial Lab as Assistant Director of Microbiology and Virology. He was the Director of Lab and X-Ray Services for over 20 years and was Director of Cadham Lab for the final 5 years of his career, retiring in 2000. He died in Winnipeg on 16th January 2001.
d)  Alan O'Moore Williams, an engineer, born on 1st May 1934. He stayed here in Ireland and never married. He died on 5th October 2014 and is buried in Mount Jerome.
e)  Ruth Dickson Williams, my mother, a teacher, born on 4th May 1937.  She married our dad,  Paul Cuthbert Stewart, in Dublin on 31st March 1960. She passed away on 14th February 2023 and is buried in Killiney Churchyard.
f)  Edward Dickson Williams, an engineer, born 23rd April 1942;  in 1970, he married Mary Elizabeth Percy (known as Elizabeth), a teacher who worked with my mother Ruth in Rathgar Junior School. They moved to England.  Edward passed away in England on 11th July 2020.

It was believed by the family that Joseph Edwards Dickson had died young at work following a fall onboard a ship on 10th April 1905;  however his civil registration of death reveals that he had died, aged only 40, of septic peritonitis following eleven years of renal disease; his brother-in-law, Charles Robert Dunbar was the informant when he died.  Perhaps he'd suffered a fall at work at some stage prior to this, and his family passed the story down through the generations?  Joseph Edwards Dickson left a young family - his wife, Tennie, and her children would remain living with her widowed mother, Isabella Pennefather Jones, first in Howth, then later in Carisbrooke House in Ballsbridge.

'Joseph Edwards Dickson of 19 Leahys-Terrace, Sandymount county Dublin died 10th April 1905. Probate Dublin to Eveleen Dickson and Isabella Jones, widows, sealed LONDON 13 November. Effects £65 8s. 2d. in England.'

The business continued without Joseph and can be seen in the Dublin Telephone Directory for 1913:
Dickson J.E. & Co., Coal Importers, 110 Great Brunswick Street and Custom House Dock.
Earlier the business address had been the Grand Canal Wharf and Great Brunswick Street.  The business had most likely continued under the management of Joseph's mother-in-law, Isabella Jones, who was known to be a formidable businesswoman.  An ad. for the business in the Irish Times of 1914 gave, not only the Gt. Brunswick address, but an additional one at 5 d'Olier St, and noted also that the business had been established in 1824.

Following his death, Joseph's widow, Tennie, moved back home to her mother's home with her children and spent the remainder of her life there, first at Howth, then in Ballsbridge.  Her mother, Isabella Anna Jones, née Pennefather, died aged 94 on 31st May 1942, and Tennie died four years later from starvation as a result of oesophageal cancer on 7th March 1946. Her unmarried daughter, Eveleen Dickson/Ebbie had lived with her for a number of years at the end of her life. Tennie is remembered fondly by her grandchildren as a sweet-natured woman who was a wonderful cook;  she was an enthusiastic member of the baptist Plymouth Brethren community and ran a Bible class for the girls, both at Merrion Hall and at home in Granite House.

Emily Eveleen/Tennie Dickson, of Granite House, Pembroke Road, died on 7th March 1946.

The Dickson Family of Clonfeacle Parish, near Dungannon, Co. Tyrone:

Joseph Edwards Dickson had been born circa 1865 in Benburb, Clonfeacle, Co. Tyrone (just south of Dungannon) to a farmer Henry Dickson (1812 - 1906) and his wife Eliza/Elizabeth Edwards.

His parents had married in the Moy, Drummond area of Clonfeacle in 1848: Henry's father was a second Henry Dickson and Elizabeth's father was James Edwards.  James Edwards was farming 29 acres in Leckpatrick, Desert, Co. Tyrone in 1858.   Henry Dickson Sr., the father of Henry Dickson Jr., was most likely from Carrowcolman, while his son would subsequently settle in Drummond, three miles away.

The Dickson/Dixon family was associated with the Clonfeacle area of Tyrone which included the neighbouring townlands of Benburb, Carrowcolman, Mullycar and Moy.

From the 1910 edition of 'The Journal of the Irish Memorials Association, 1910':   "Here lyeth the body of David Dickson late of Mullicar who departed this life October 3rd 1747 aged 61 years."

The PRONI website lists five Dicksons as 40-shilling freeholders in Mullicar, Tyrone, noted there on 25th February 1796: Thomas Dickson, Joseph Dickson, George Dickson, John Dickson and James Dickson.  A Thomas Dickson of Mullycar married a woman named Letitia and had Margaret Jane on 22/10/1839, Thomas on 22/3/1842 and Elizabeth on 9/4/1844.

The Tithe Applotment Books of the 1830s show up no Dicksons/Dixons in Clonfeacle, Benburb;  in Carrowcolman, however, Henry Dixon was farming 26 arable acres, and Richard Dixon was farming 9 acres.  The Henry Dixon here appears to be Henry Dickson Sr., the grandfather of Joseph Edwards Dickson.

Griffiths Valuation was carried out in Tyrone in 1860 and the survey shows a plethora of Dicksons/Dixons in the immediate vicinity leasing land from Viscount Powerscourt:
George Dickson,  Carrowcolman,  10 acres.
John Dickson,  Carrowcolman,  38 acres.
Thomas Dickson, Carrowcolman, 4 acres.
Joseph Dickson, Mullycar, 9 acres. (Leasing from Joseph Goff.)
William Dickson, Mullycar, 9 acres. (Leasing from Joseph Goff.)
Ann Dickson, Moy, leasing a house only from Marg. Johnston.
HENRY DIXON,  31 acres, Moy, Drummond. (This was either Joseph Edward Dickson's father or his grandfather.)
(The above John Dickson might be the John Dickson of Mullycar, who married Mary A. Leeman there and had the following children - William born 6/61875;  Violet Jane born 28/11/1877; John born 18/7/1879;  Barbara Ann born 18/4/1882.  Our own Joseph Edwards Dickson would later name a daughter as Violet.)

Henry Dickson Senior, grandfather of Joseph Edwards Dickson:


Joseph Edwards Dickson was the son of Henry Dickson Jr., whose father was also named Henry.  Henry Dixon/Henry Dickson Sr., was farming in Carrowcolman in the 1830s, alongside a Richard Dixon.  By 1860, he was noted in Moy, Drummond, although this might be his married son, Henry Dickson Jr.
The wife of the earlier Henry (our great-great-great grandmother) is unknown, but she might be the Naamah Dickson who had been born circa 1773 and whose death was registered in Dungannon in 1870 when she died aged 97.  A granddaughter was later named as Sarah Maria McCollough Dickson, so perhaps McCollough was the family name of Henry Dickson Sr.'s wife?  The name of Henry Dickson Sr's wife may never be known, but what is certain is that the unusual name 'Naamah' entered the family at this time and reverberated down through the subsequent generations of the Dickson family.

The known children of Henry (and possibly Naamah) Dickson Senior were:

1) Maria Dickson who married George Kirkland, the brother of Sarah Kirkland, on 25th January 1850 in Clonfeacle. William Kirkland was the father of George and Sarah Kirkland- in 1860, William Kirkland was farming in Terryscollop, Clonfeacle.  Maria Dickson was the daughter of Henry Dickson, a farmer, and in 1850 she was living in Carrowcolman.   The wedding witnesses were David Dickson, the bride's brother, and someone illegible along the lines of Robert Skittle (?).

2 ) Nahaamah Dickson who married Joseph Machesney, the son of James Machesney in Clonfeacle Church of Ireland on 21st May 1852.  Joseph Machesney was a publican/grocer of Market Street, Keady, Co. Armagh, although at the time of his marriage to Nahaamah Dickson he was noted as a farmer of Mullan, Tynan, Co. Armagh,  sixteen miles south of Carrowcolman where Nahaamah was living.  The witnesses to the wedding were David Dickson and James Greacen.

Griffiths Valuation of 1860 shows up a James McChesney farming in Mullyneil, Aghaloo, as was William Leslie, who was possibly the father of Agnes Leslie who married Nahaamah Dickson's brother, David Dickson.

The only trace of the Machesney family are a family on the 1901 Belfast census living at 16 Lawnbrook Avenue, who have re-used the odd 'Naamah' name and might therefore be the children of Naamah and Joseph. All were born in Co. Armagh - George Machesney, an oiler in a linen factory, was born in 1860;  Naamah Machesney, a dressmaker, was born in 1865;  Sarah Maria, another dressmaker, was born in 1866;  Joseph Machesney, a colour maker, was born in 1869.

The very useful Belfast City burial records are now free to search and view online.  Several members of this Machesney family were buried in grave C2 120, including the father, Joseph Machesney (1818 - 1887) who had died, aged 69, on 3rd June 1887 at 90 Cupar Street.  
Two of his children were buried alongside him - George Machesney (1859 or 1861 - 1912) who died at 40 Lawnbrook Avenue on 29th February 1912, and Sarah Maria Machesney (1863 - 1903) who died aged 40 at 40 Lawnbrook Avenue on 14th October 1903.
The civil records back these deaths up - Sarah Machesney died aged 37 at 40 Lawnbrook Avenue on 14th October 1903, and the informant was her brother Joseph of 40 Lawnbrook Avenue.  Her brother, George Machesney died there a bachelor on 27th February 1912, aged 53;  his brother was present - James Machesney of 6 Birkin Street.

On 30th June 1882 in Ballysillan, Belfast, yarndresser James Machesney, son of Joseph Machesney and Naamah Dickson, married Maggie McLean, daughter of tenter Robert McClean of Belfast, The witnesses were Robert Douglas and Ellen McClean.  They had Robert Joseph McChesney on 25th May 1883, daughter, Naamah Machesney at 5 Carnan Street on 3rd October 1885, Sarah Ann who was born on 11th April 1889 but who died the following year, and James McChesney born 28th October 1890.    Robert Joseph McChesney, the son of James Machesney and Margaret McLean, married Elizabeth Cowan in Belfast and had a son, George, in December 1912.

3) Henry Dickson 1812 - 15th August 1906, our great-great grandfather who married Elizabeth Edwards in Clonfeacle Church of Ireland on 27th October 1848.  Their son was Joseph Edwards Dickson from whom we directly descend.

4) John Dickson 1823 - 1892  - he married Sarah Kirkland, the daughter of William Kirkland, in Clonfeacle Church of Ireland on 5th December 1850.   John Dickson, son of Henry Dickson, was living in Carrowcolman in 1850 as was Sarah Kirkland.  Their witnesses were Johnstone Irwin and Anne Anderson.

The widowed Sarah, née Kirkland, can be seen on the 1901 Census still living in Carrowcolman, Tyrone.
Their children were Thomas Dickson 1861 - 1942, Sarah Maria Dickson who was born on 27th May 1866 at Carrowcolman, an unnamed son born at Carrowcolman on 15th October 1868 and Margaret Dickson was born there on 4th November 1869 - 1938.  Eliza Dickson was present for the birth of Sarah Maria in 1866  - this was possibly Eliza Edwards, wife of Henry Dickson.  A Mary Millar of Terryglassey (?) was present for the birth of the son born in 1868.

5) David Dickson, born circa 1826.  David Dickson of Benburb married Agnes Leslie in Minterburn First Presbyterian Church on 1st October 1852.  (From 'Belfast Newsletter', 18th October 1852.)  Their wedding was registered - David Dickson of Carrowcolman was the son of farmer Henry Dickson, while Agnes Leslie was the daughter of William Leslie of Mullyneil, and the witnesses were John Johnston and John Tronson Leslie.
John Tronson Leslie, who witnessed the 1852 marriage of David Dickson and Agnes Leslie, died on 23rd March 1864, leaving a will noting him as a merchant of Downpatrick, and naming his siblings as James and Louisa Leslie, Louisa being of Armagh.

David Dickson and Agnes Leslie  possibly emigrated to New Jersey shortly after their marriage.   Agnes Leslie's father was William Leslie of Minterburn, and Griffiths Valuation notes a William Leslie farming 35 acres in Mullyneill townland, Aghaloo, 2.5 miles north of Minterburn Church, as was James McChesney, possibly the father of Joseph McChesney who married Naamah Dickson, David Dickson's sister.

Henry Dickson (1812 - 15th August 1906) and Elizabeth Edwards (1815 - 1905) :

Elizabeth Edwards, who married Henry Dickson, was the daughter of James Edwards.  The marriage of Henry Dickson, son of Henry Dickson of Drummond, and Elizabeth Edwards, daughter of James Edwards of Kilmore, Winterburn, took place in Clonfeacle Church on 24th October 1848.  The witnesses were Thomas Irwin and Thomas Edwards.

Thomas Edwards was Elizabeth Edward's brother.  On 26th January 1849 he married Elizabeth Campbell, the daughter of Moses Campbell of Crievelough.  This was witnessed by Henry Edwards and James Wright.
Thomas Edwards of Kilmore (1810 - 1871)  died on 7th March 1871, leaving a will in which he named his son as James Edwards.  His executors were William Campbell of Guinness, Tyrone, and his brother-in-law Joseph Campbell of Creevelough.

Thomas's son, James Edwards, died aged 30 in Kilmore on 26th February 1880; his mother, Elizabeth, née Campbell, was present at his death.  The widowed Elizabeth died aged 82 in Crievelough on 7th September 1890 - her brother Joseph Campbell was present.
Joseph Campbell of Crievelough/Creevelough made a will when he died there in January 1896;  he named his sister as Elizabeth Edwards and left £5 to Joseph Andrew Edwards, son of James Edwards of Crievelough who was now living in German Hills, Orange, New South Wales.  Also named in this will was Henry Edwards, the son of William Edwards of Crievelough.    The 'Northern Whig' of November 1875 advertised the sale of James Edwards' farm in Crievelough, on the road leading from Benburb to Dungannon, prior to James Edwards' planned emigration to New Zealand.

Was there a family link between the family of our James Edwards of Kilmore and the Edwards family of Crievelough, I wonder?   The townlands of Kilmore, Dyan, Ballyvaddy and Crievelough all cluster together in the parish of Aghaloo.

The Freeholders records, viewable on the PRONI website, show up only one member of an Edwards family farming in the parish of Aghaloo in the 1790s.  This was our James Edwards who was a landholder in Kilmore.  As a forty shilling Protestant landholder he was eligible to vote, so he signed the freeholders register on 25th February 1796.

The tithes records of both 1825 and 1837 record that James Edwards, our ancestor, was farming in Kilmore and also possibly in neighbouring Dyan townland, since the books record two men with the same name.  Also in Dyan was a Wilson Edwards.  There were no Edwards in Crievelough before 1837, but by 1860, when Griffiths Valuation was carried out,  Henry Edwards was farming there - he might be the same Henry Edwards who was farming land in adjoining Ballyvaddy.
By 1860,  James Edwards of Kilmore had been replaced by his son, Thomas Edwards, in the land records, and Griffiths records that Thomas Edwards was also leasing a field in neighbouring Dyan.

Henry Edwards (1799 - 1881) was the son of William Edwards of Crievelough, and the husband of Jane Johnston.  Henry made a will and died in Crievelough on 29th August 1881;  his will named his son and heir as William Edwards, and his daughters as Martha, Jane, Rosanna and Eliza.   Son William, who inherited the Edwards family farm, died on 30th November 1896 and named one of his executors as his brother, John Edwards, who was faming across the county border in Portnaghey, Co. Monaghan.  On 25th April 1873, John Edwards, son of Henry Edwards of Crievelough, married Jane Wright of Ballyvaddy, daughter of Francis Wright. When  John Edwards died his will named his son as William Henry Edwards, and daughters as Maggie, Edith, Annie, Martha Robertson of New York State,  Tillie Hammesfahr of New York State (she was the wife of Peter Hammesfahr)  and Sarah Hoey of Dyan, Co. Tyrone.

A recent DNA test has strongly linked both my mother and I to Christine Peterson who also descends directly from a James Edwards of Co. Tyrone, via his daughter Rosanna Edwards.

Rosanna Edwards had been born in about 1812 and married James Kerr in about 1832.  James Kerr died aged 76 in Drumnastrade, Benburb, Co. Tyrone, on 13th March 1886.  Their daughter, Rosanna Kerr (1836 - 1904) married Henry William Kerr in Waterloo, Ontario, and had Ida Winifred Kerr who married David Coote Beggs.  Christine descends directly from them.

The name 'Rosanna' was associated with the Edwards family of Creevelough,  Aghaloo parish, Co. Tyrone and also with our Dickson family of Drummond.

As for the family of James Kerr, who had married Rosanna Edwards in about 1832, there was a family of this name in Drummond, Co. Tyrone.  John Kerr died aged 84 on 25th October 1899; his son, Joseph Kerr, was present.  On 8th June 1894 in St. James' Church, Moy, this Joseph Kerr married
Madoline Kerr, the daughter of Thomas Kerr and Susan Ford of Drummond.  Joseph Kerr didn't last long, and died of typhoid on 9th September 1904.
His widow, Madoline, married Thomas James Dickson, in the Registrar's Office on 4th October 1906.  Both bride and groom were 30 years old and the wedding was witnessed by the groom's brother, David Dickson, and by John Kerr.   Thomas James Dickson and David Dickson were the sons of Henry Dickson Jr. and  Elizabeth Edwards who were my maternal great-great grandparents.

The six known children of Henry Dickson Jr. and Elizabeth Edwards were

• Naamah Dickson born circa 1860.  
• Sarah Maria Dickson who was born in Drummond on 20th April 1864.
• Our great-grandfather Joseph Edwards Dickson born  circa 1865. 
• David Dickson. 
• Rosanna Dickson.
• Thomas James Dickson.

On the 1901 Census in Moy, Drummond, we can see the elderly Henry Dickson aged 86 and Elizabeth aged 85, still alive and living with their son, David Dickson, and his young wife Anne Marie.
Immediately next door to Henry and Elizabeth, was their son Thomas Js. Dickson, aged 28.

Elizabeth  Dickson, née Edwards, died at Drummond aged 90 on 29th April 1905; the informant was her son David.
Henry Dickson of Drummond, father of Sarah Maria, Joseph, David, Rosanna, and Thomas James, and husband of Elizabeth Edwards, died a widower aged 94 on 15th August 1906.  I hope I've inherited their genes.

In 1911 Henry's son David Dickson and his wife were still living at Moy.   David's wife was Anna Maria Atkinson.  David Dickson, son of Henry Dickson and Elizabeth Edwards, had married Anna Maria Atkinson, the daughter of John Atkinson of Coolhill, in Drumglass on 2nd August 1898 - this was witnessed by his brother Thomas J. Dickson and by Lizzie Atkinson.

(The Atkinson family originated in Annamoy townland.    Anna Maria Atkinson, who married David Dickson in 1898, had been born in Annamoy on 23rd February 1873, to John Atkinson and Margaret Walker.  Among her siblings were Margaret Jane Atkinson who was born in 1869 in Annamoy and who married George Gleichert in New York in 1902.  Robert John Atkinson was born in 1871 and married Matilda Jane Ewing in 1913.  Other siblings were Thomas Henry Atkinson who married Edith Lawson in New York in 1908, Thomas Henry Atkinson and Frederick William Atkinson.

Anna Maria Atkinson's father, John Atkinson (1848 - 1920) of Annamoy and Coolhill, was the son of Cornelius Atkinson of Annamoy.
Cornelius Atkinson died on 10th March 1880;  he left a will in which he named his son, John, as the chief beneficiary, and also two daughters, Catherine and Eliza.  The two witnesses were Dickson Orr of Lisnacroy, and Joseph Alexander Dickson of Carrowcolman, who was possibly a relation of my own Dickson family of Drummond. 
Catherine and Eliza Atkinson, sisters of John and daughters of Cornelius, might have emigrated to New York where they married - a Catherine Haskins, died aged 44 on 1887 and was noted as the Irish-born daughter of Cornelius and Ruth Atkinson.
Eliza Atkinson, noted as the daughter of Cornelius Atkinson and Ruth Kimpsire (this name was most likely a typo, married Maxwell Gillespie in 1875;  widowed, she later married, in 1887, William Haskins, and then in 1898, Charles Monckton. The record named her as Lizzie Haskins, the daughter of Cornelius Atkinson and Ruth. E. Compesta.

David Dickson, who married Anna Maria Atkinson in 1898, was named as one of the chief mourners at the 1909 funeral of Joseph Atkinson of Annamoy, who had married Mary Jane Jardine in 1868.  The two sons of Joseph Atkinson and Mary Jane Jardine were Joseph and Edward Jardine Atkinson.)

David Dickson, brother of our Joseph Edwards Dickson - photo kindly supplied by David's great-granddaughter Elizabeth Newell

Elizabeth Edwards Reid, née Dickson, eldest daughter of David Dickson and Anna Maria Atkinson - grandmother of Elizabeth Newell who kindly supplied this photo.

The children of David Dickson and Anna Maria Atkinson were:

• Elizabeth Edwards Dickson born 28th May 1899 - 26th April 1975.
• Margaret born 28th November 1900 - 2nd September 1915.
• Ruth Emma or Anna Dickson born 18th June 1902 - 6th March 1907.
• Annie Maria born 21st August 1904 - 1996.
• Henry born 1st October 1906 - 1990, died in Belfast.
• Naamah Dickson born at Drummond on 28th May 1908 - 1997, she died in Portadown, Co. Armagh, and had married Robert George McClelland on 11th June 1928.
• Joseph Edwards Dickson 1911 - 1970;  he was named after David's late brother, our great-granddfather, who had died six years earlier.
• Thomas James born 15th May 1913 - 1948.

David Dickson's wife, Anna Maria Atkinson, died aged 42 of tuberculosis in Drummond on 17th February 1914.
On 3rd May 1916 in Moy, Clonfeakle, widower David Dickson, son of Henry Dickson and Elizabeth Edwards, married Eliza Jane, daughter of Robert Lucas of Ballymackleduff. The witnesses were Robert and Mary Lucas.

Joseph Dickson's oldest sister, Naamah Dickson, was born in Drummond in about 1860 to Henry Dickson and Elizabeth Edwards.  She died aged 26 of heart disease in Drummond on 21st December 1886;  her brother, David Dickson, was the informant.

Joseph Dickson's sister, Sarah Maria McCollough/McCullagh Dickson, was born in Drummond on 20th April 1864  to Henry Dickson and Elizabeth Edwards.  On 27th December 1895 in Moy, Clonfeacle, she married James Millar or Miller, a farmer of Mullaghboy, the son of John Millar.  The wedding was witnessed by our great-grandfather, Joseph Edwards Dickson, and by an M.E.Hillock, who I believe to be Margaret Elizabeth Hillock, the wife of an Armagh coal and timber merchant Henry Hillock.

James Millar and Sarah Maria McCollough Dickson of Mullaghboy, Co. Tyrone, had:

• Elizabeth Millar on 12th August 1897.
• Lydia Millar on 11th August 1898.
• John Millar born circa 1900.
• Naamah Maria on 1st October 1901.
• Annie Evelyn Millar on 9th October 1903,
• Margaret Millar on 21st October 1904 and
• James Millar on 8th August 1906.

There are extremely strong DNA links between my mother and two descendants of the Millar family. George Millar is a descendant of John Millar, the son of James Millar and Sarah Maria McCollough Dickson - John Millar (1900 - 1975) married Matilda Weir (1911 - 2001), and DNA match George Millar descends from them.
A second strong DNA match is Sharon Farmer née Lavery, whose parents were Robert John Lavery and Doreen McKenzie;  Robert John Lavery must be a son of the George Lavery who married Elizabeth Millar, the daughter ot James Millar and Sarah Maria McCollough Dickson, in Loughgall, Co. Armagh, on 13th December 1917.  George Lavery was the son of a John Lavery.  The witnesses to this wedding in 1917 were Joseph Lavery and Lydia Millar.   Lydia Millar, in her turn, married John McClelland, son of George McClelland of Loughgall, in Benburn, Clonfeacle, on 22nd April 1920, and this wedding was witnessed by a Robert McClelland and a member of the Dickson family, Lizzie Dickson.

A fourth child of Henry Dickson Junior and Elizabeth Edwards was Rose Anne (or Rosanna) Dickson (1853 - 1891) who married Samuel Fulton of Lisduff, Benburb, on 10th December 1878 in Clonfeacle Church. Samuel Fulton was a farmer and son of Robert Fulton of Lisduff.  The wedding was witnessed by the bride's younger brothers,  Thomas J. Dickson and our great-grandfather Joseph Edwards Dickson.
Samuel Fulton and Rose Anne Dickson had children - Martha Jane Fulton was born in Lisduff on 15th October 1879, Sarah Maria Fulton was born on 21st June 1881,  Joseph Henderson Fulton was born on 5th February 1883, Joseph Henry Fulton was born on 21st October 1885, Naamah Fulton was born on 24th October 1887 but died in 1890, and Sarah Maria was born on 3rd August 1890.
The childrens' mother, Rose Ann, née Dickson, died of peritonitis aged 38 in Lisduff, Benburb, on 26th July 1891.
In 1901 the widowed Sam Fulton was living at 41 Frome Street in Belfast with three of his children, Martha L., John and Sarah.  They gave their religion as Salvation Army.
Sam Fulton, died of pneumonia at 41 Frome Street, Co. Down, on 1st August 1907.  Daughter Martha Fulton married William Hewitt on 20th April 1907.

My mother and I link very strongly via DNA to a James Fulton who also links strongly to my Millar matches, George Millar and Sharon Farmer née Lavery, but who hasn't provided an online family tree.  I presume he descends from the family of Samuel Fulton and Rose Anne Dickson.

(The Ruth Dickson who married Andrew Ferguson, son of William Ferguson, on 1st March 1875, was the daughter of an unrelated Henry Dickson who was farming at Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, ten miles north of Drummond, the home of the Dickson family discussed in this post. )